Oshan Critter Ideas

[LovelyMimic]

I'm a huge armchair marine biology nerd, and while Oshan Laboratory's surroundings are already home to a plethora of species of fish, I'm convinced there's still a ton of untapped potential for critters (both hostile and docile) to populate the seafloor around the station and, in particular, the abyssal trench beneath it, be it with relatively real-world life, or strange and horrible alien organisms (Abzu is an alien planet, after all). Here's a few ideas:

• Jellyfish, and other gelatinous things that look more or less like jellyfish (like the portuguese man-o'-war, and comb jellies) could be a atmospheric and somewhat hazardous addition.
  

• "Conventional" jellyfish could hang out either alone or in small groups, "drifting with the current" (i.e. each jellyfish sorta moving in formation in the same semi-random directions). People in the same space as them would brush up against their stinging tentacles and take some damage.
  

• Bioluminescent comb jellies could be a cool addition to the abyss, being colorful, but faint, illumination amidst the gloom. Just look at this fella:
  

• Irukandji Box Jellyfish would also be fairly easy to add, since the sprites would be tiny and transparent, and their venom could just be a chem that decays into way too much epinephrine, which is how Irukandji Syndrome kills you. It's just that I can't imagine any of that being a fun and worthwhile feature.
  

• One or more deep-sea fangly fish (viperfish, anglerfish the size of large pods, etc.)!
  

These next few ideas were suggested by Schwick in the discord, and are posted with their permission:

• Spider crabs!
  

• Rainbow jellyfish with hallucinogenic stings!
  

• Bobbit worms in the abyss that try to grab you and pull you into the rocks:
  

• Hydrothermal vents, surrounded by (possibly aggressive) tube worms.
  

I'd also be down to try spriting critters. For starters, I've already sprited up a nautilus (which is in my spriting thread).

[Gannets]

While I'm sure in time we can add/tweak ai behaviours for more aquatic critters. For now, I am very down to add the sprites for any nicely drawn sea animals our players make!

[poland spring]

Buttfish: jellyfish but its a butt

[Vitatroll]

Buttfish: jellyfish but its a butt

That's a tad too perfect.

On that note, are fart bubbles a thing? I never checked.

[Erev]

Merpeople or, better, meraliens.

[kyle2143]

Oh you're right, there does need to be more. My suggestion: The Mantis Shrimp.

[Frank_Stein]

Like Shitty bill, they just say random shit


Also:
- Crab Merchant
- Other crustaceans like crab, lobster, prawn, and shrimp for cooking recipes
- Some kind of angler fish that uses loot crates or items as it's bait to catch crewmen
- Sea Horse you can ride
- Puffer fish you can make fugu from and extract tetrodotoxin from
- Electric Eels
- Sword Fish
- Blob Fish
- Squids with ink
- Octopi with camouflage

[Vitatroll]

We do have a Clownfish, right? Somebody needs to sprite a Clown-Fish.

Do it for the children.

[poland spring]

Some mobs should only show up near structures to give clues to explorers

[NateTheSquid]

a squid critter. so i can truly be natethesquid

[Gannets]

Clownfish was the first I made.

[warcrimes]

Buttfish: jellyfish but its a butt

That's a tad too perfect.

On that note, are fart bubbles a thing? I never checked.

no bubbles, but they move you forward. good for mitigating the stun/slowdown from swimming through seaweeds

[Berrik]

SHAAAAAAAAARKS

[Frank_Stein]

SHAAAAAAAAARKS

Street Sharks instead of Macho Men

[Studenterhue]

GIANT diatoms that grant bits of diatom shells, which make excellent anti-critter weapons.

This is also great chance to revisit those Cambrian critters.